CABROL, Barthélemy (1529–1603) & PLEMP, Vopiscus Fortunatus (1601-1671)

First Dutch edition of Cabrol’s Alphabet anatomic, whose book first appeared in Tournon, 1594, and went through several French and Latin editions. This Dutch edition is mainly the work of V. F. Plemp, who has respected Cabrol’s text by consigning his own case reports and comments to an addendum at the end of each chapter.The book was reissued in 1648. Cabrol was one of Ambroise Paré’s best pupils and anatomist at the University of Montpellier. Later he became physician-in-ordinary to King Henry IV of France. Vospicus Fortunatus Plemp (1601-1671) was an influential Dutch physician, who after studies in Padua and Bologna was appointed professor of medicine in Louvain. Although this Dutch edition is mainly based on Cabrol it may just as properly be catalogued under Plemp as the book is a compilation from several sources under Plemp’s editorship. In his dedication to Nicolaus Petreus (= Dr. Tulp), Plemp explains the great need for a compendious anatomical atlas as Valverde’s Vivæ imagines since long was out of print. The engraved title-page is in fact Valverde’s but for a new text in the oval title shield flanked by two skeletons and at top a monkey and a pig playing with bones and a skull. The arms and the view of Venice is changed to the arms and a view of Amsterdam. Besides from Valverde (which in turn is based on Vesalius) Plemp also used Fabricius de Aquapendente’s famous illustration of the forearm showing valves of the veins, also used by Harvey in his De motu cordis. Other sources were Coiter, du Laurens, Ryff and Vesling. The section on crania, beautifully illustrated with 35 engravings, is mainly based on Dryander’s Anatomia (1537), the first significant book on the anatomy of the head. The section on the Eye was probably Plemp’s own as he had published his own Ophthalmographia in the previous year. The large plate of the Leyden anatomical theatre was originally engraved by Andries Stock after a painting by Jacob de Gheyn entitled “Dr Paaw’s Anatomy Lesson” and was first used in Paaw’s own anatomy books. It was Paaw who built the the anatomical theatre in Leyden.

Collation: Pp (16) incl. additional engraved title, 262, (2) final blank leaf. One large folding engraved plate with a dissecting scene in the Leyden Anatomical Theatre, 2 folding plates with skeletons and one with skulls. There are 123 engravings in the text. Fine historiated initails. Head-lines and a verse in the prelims are set in civilité types.

Binding: Contemporary laced-case parchment binding over pasteboard; the five sewing supports and endband slips laced through. Endbands in red and beige, edges sprinkled red. Remnants of dried flowers in the book.

Provenance: Owner's inscription on fly-leaf: Kermaneus Colijn 1689, followed by 10 lines in Dutch in the same hand. Signature of Matthias Krapp inside front cover. Stamp: Svenska LäkareSällskapet. This copy was a gift to SLS from Carl Gustaf Osbeck (1766–1841), the son of Per Osbeck (SLS årsbok 1816 p 101).

References: Hirsch, IV, 630; Luyendijk-Elshout, A.M. ’The Introduction of Valverde’s and Cabrol’s Anatomy into the Low Countries 1568-1633’ in 27th International Congress of the History of Medicine (Barcelona, 1981) pp 298-303. SLS 500. Waller 1683-84 (other editions).